I don't want to have a big debate over which POV is "right," because both can be (and have been) argued, but a couple of thoughts I had:

1. If BYU had Sunday games, and an athlete didn't want to play on Sunday, could they opt out (and not lose their scholarship)? Would they be pressured by their team/coaches to play? What about Coaches? Could a coach opt out of coaching a Sunday game? Perhaps BYU is trying their hardest to create that "ideal world" for sabbath observance? Now, if all football games were help only on Sunday, would they participate "for the greater good"? I don't know.

2. Would the team even want to play on Sunday? If they gave them the option of not playing if they felt it was not in keeping with their religious beliefs, would we lose enough that we'd have to forfeit games? Is this why we don't have more Jewish Athletes on the team?

3. Is there a chance that we get some athletes (LDS, probably), who come specifically to BYU because they don't want to deal with Sunday play and know that it is not something they'll have to worry about at BYU (esp. in things like women's basketball, soccer, gymnastics, etc. etc.)

4. Finally, I hate the Temple-worthiness aspect of this debate. There are lots of things people do and don't do that are not in the temple recommend questions that are right and wrong. The temple isn't for perfect people; it's for people who are working towards perfection. Sure worthiness is a gauge . . .and I get what you're saying, but too often (in the church, in general), we feel that temple-worthiness questions are the summit, when in reality, they are the trailhead. <-----I'm realizing this is less related to your posts, but I don't want to make a new post, so I'm just gonna leave it here.

For the record, I applaud how you, personally, dedicate your sabbath. I grew up in a house that didn't watch TV and Early in our marriage, my wife and I decided that "a show or two" on Sunday night would be OK. I wish we could go back and alter that decision. Now, our kids whine because they can't watch TV before church, beg for it after, and my wife and I struggle to rein in our consumption. It is like a drug. . .we just keep getting sucked in to "entertainment" on the Lord's day.

(Maybe that's why BYU doesn't have Sunday Sports. . .there are weak people like me who would slide too far down that slippery slope and become methodically mired in the shallow silt of Sabbath squanderings.)